There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
My invention relates generally to child carriage vehicles and more particularly to a harness to interconnect such a vehicle with a jogger for hands-free operation.
Wheeled vehicles for the transport of children have long been known and in their historical course of development have become quite sophisticated and often specialized for particular uses. In the present day with a general cultural increase in walking, jogging and running activities for exercise and other purposes, various child carriage vehicles and ancillary apparatus have become known and adapted for use in such ambulatory activities. Though such vehicles and ancillary apparatus developmentally have reached some degree of sophistication, problems still remain with them and their use. The instant invention seeks to resolve or alleviate various of these remaining problems.
The many and various vehicles of diverse configurations for the support and transport of children generally, and babies and infants in particular, that have heretofore become known have provided from one to four or more wheels for locomotion and varying frame and body structures, often specifically designed for particular purposes, but all by reason of their nature, have provided some type of manipulative structure for either gripping or interconnection with a user to provide means for motion and control by the user. Most such vehicles provide a handle-like structure having at least one elongate, horizontal or vertical grasping or support element projecting from the primary structure, usually rearwardly, for convenient user access and manipulation. It is with this type of child carriage vehicle that my invention is concerned in providing a substantially universally usable harness to interconnect such a vehicle and a user to allow manipulation for vehicle motion and control without requiring the use of the operator""s hands.
Various interconnecting devices have heretofore become known for interconnecting an operator and a child carriage vehicle, but most have been designed for use with particular vehicles, either by being permanently attached to the vehicle or having specially configured structures for attachment to particularly configured vehicle parts. The instant harness in contradistinction provides plural attachment arms with connectors that may be releasably attached to structural elements of child vehicles of either horizontal, vertical or angulated orientation and varying sizes to allow use with a wide variety of child carriage vehicles with or without traditional handle structures as such. The connectors further provide all structure necessary for releasable connection with a child carriage vehicle and require no specialized structure or modification of the vehicle to make such connection.
For safety of both a child occupant and the operator of a child carriage vehicle, it heretofore has generally been found desirable to provide an automatically releasable interconnection between the vehicle and the operator to reduce or prevent injuries in the event of accidents. The instant harness resolves this problem simply and inexpensively by providing similar spaced elongate connecting arms with vehicle connectors at first ends and operator connectors at second ends, either of which may be slidably carried on the support arms for positional maintenance by frictional engagement, deformation of resilient detent structures or both to allow regulation of the force required to disconnect the elements.
For any child carriage vehicle harness to be practically effective, it must provide some degree of control of the locomotion of the child carriage vehicle without materially affecting the other requirements for such harness. Various known harness type devices have developed some measure of such control, but often not to the degree required or at the expense of other required vehicle functions. The instant harness provides two similar spaced connecting arms that at first ends are attachable to a vehicle at spaced positions and at second ends are attached to an operator belt at spaced positions to provide leverage between the connection points at both the first and second ends to provide substantial and finely regulatable control of the child carriage vehicle by simple and easily exerted body twisting type motions of the operator. This structure is distinguished from prior devices that have not provided interconnection at two spaced points at each end of connecting devices for manipulative leverage or that have not provided releasable control structures that are easily released by normal control type motions of a user.
For a child carriage vehicle harness to be practically usable by walking, jogging or running vehicle operators, the harness structure must articulate sufficiently to allow the normal motions of the manipulator""s activity while not substantially lessening or destroying any of the other functional requirements of the harness. Various prior harnesses have made provision for user motion, but often this has been at the expense of other functions, especially such as control or emergency release of the child carriage vehicle from the operator. The instant harness resolves this problem by providing synergistic articulating motion at both ends of each harness support rod relative to the structure that interconnects with those ends. The ordinary and habitual motion of the user""s body, at its waist portion where the harness belt is positioned, in ambulating or jogging is substantially vertically oriented, so the instant articulation allows motion primarily in a vertical plane to accommodate the required body motion, but yet maintains vehicle control by reason of the lesser potential for motion in any direction other than in a vertical plane.
My invention lies not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of its structures that necessarily give rise to the functions flowing therefrom as herein set forth and claimed.
My child carriage vehicle harness provides two elongate rigid connecting arms each carrying vehicle connectors at their first ends. The second ends of the connecting arms are carried in similar belt connectors structurally supported on an operator belt that is releasably carried about an operator""s waist. The vehicle connectors have releasable fasteners to extend about a handle or other structural elements of the vehicle for positional maintenance that is optionally pivotal. The belt connectors provide resiliently deformable structures to allow limited angulated motion of the connecting arm carried therein, principally in a vertical plane. The interconnection of the connecting arms with both the vehicle connectors and belt connectors may be releasable upon application of predetermined separating force.
In providing such a device, it is:
A principal object to provide a harness to interconnect a child carriage vehicle with an operator to allow locomotion and control of the vehicle during ambulatory activities of an operator without requiring use of the operator""s hands.
A further object is to provide such a harness having two spaced connecting arms that are releasably attachable at first ends to a child carriage vehicle at spaced points and at second ends are carried at spaced positions by an operator belt to provide leverage for vehicle control by twisting motion of the waist portion of a user""s body.
A further object is to provide such a harness wherein the connecting arms carry optionally releasable vehicle connectors at their first ends and optionally releasable belt connectors at their second ends so that the connector arms may be released from supporting structures by axially oriented forces of predetermined strength resulting from accidental happenings.
A still further object is to provide such a harness that has vehicle connectors with releasable connecting elements that may be fastened about portions of a vehicle handle or frame that are orientated in vertical, horizontal or angulated array.
A still further object is to provide such a harness that optionally has connectors of such nature that allow connecting arms to move primarily in a vertical plane while restraining motion in a horizontal plane to accommodate normal walking, jogging or running motion of a user while maintaining a user""s control of vehicle course of motion.
A still further object is to provide such a harness that is of new and novel design, of rugged and durable nature, of simple and economic manufacture and one that is otherwise well suited to the uses and purposes for which it is intended.
Other and further objects of my invention will appear from the following specification and accompanying drawings which form a part hereof. In carrying out the objects of my invention, however, it is to be understood that its features are susceptible of change in design and structural arrangement, with only one preferred and practical embodiment being described in the accompanying specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, as is required.